


stardust

by permink



Series: let's talk about space [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, i started this fic ages ago why havent i written it yet, kinda angst with a super happy ending!, theres probably other characters too, yamaguchi has these lights ever since he was a kid, yamaguchi is a pretty boy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 02:38:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15654030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/permink/pseuds/permink
Summary: In which Yamaguchi has these oh so pretty lights embedded in his skin and floating around his head. He manages to keep everything under wraps, but of course, life decides to screw him over.Yamaguchi has had these lights ever since he was born, but who knew they could be dangerous?





	stardust

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is just an idea i've had for quite a while and dug out of my computer just now. Hope you enjoy!

Yamaguchi was like any other child, you know?

He played with his toys, hugged his mother, and drew terrible crayon pictures.

He cried when he didn’t get his way or when he went to the doctor’s.

General child-like things to do.

And of course, life decided it didn’t want that.

* * *

 

 “Mummy!”

His adolescent voice rang through the house, rattling the copious amounts of vases his mother owned.

“Mummy! Come quick!”

His mother placed the towel in her hand on the table in haste.

“Yes, Tadashi?” She poked her head through the door to his room.

“Mummy! Look how pretty the lights are!” His voice was filled with youthful glee.

He pointed his small chubby fingers at the air, obviously excited about something.

Lights. Dozens of them, swirling and swirling. Floating around in little droplets of liquid gold that seemed to move in a disorganised dance. Casting soft warm glows onto his young and beaming face, lighting it up. Lights, also embedded into his skin, tucked in between the smattering of freckles adoring Yamaguchi’s face. They formed a beautifully intricate constellation of freckles and golden lights. All shining in the night sky of his skin.

Yamaguchi giggled, and poked at a particularly bright light, that darted away playfully at his touch. He turned to his mother in pride as if to say ‘Look at my lights! Aren’t you proud of me?’

She stared at her son. For what seemed like hours, just still as a statue. With each strenuous second Yamaguchi’s smile grew more and more heavy.

Then, she spoke. The tenderness in her voice ripped ferociously through the tense silence.

“Tadashi, come here.” Yamaguchi stopped smiling and stared confusedly at her strained face. Didn’t mummy like the pretty lights?

He walked over to her, and suddenly she pulled him into her arms.

“Mummy, what’s wrong? You don’t like the lights?”

She smiled painfully and bitterly, like she was straining.

“Yes, Tadashi, yes I do.”

They didn’t talk about his lights after that.

* * *

 

Yamaguchi didn’t understand, he liked his lights. They swirled around his hands, and followed the movement of his arms. His freckles would light up too, like his own little constellation. He thought they were pretty, like fairies.

That’s why he didn’t understand why his mother called in a doctor.

He didn’t like his doctor, she smiled strangely at him. Like he was something to be pitied. Or an animal in the zoo.  Still, she gave him candy, so naturally he put up with it. I mean, free candy, am I right?

Yamaguchi had seen a number of doctors before her, all who were utterly bewildered by his strange… condition.

Then, his mother had resignedly called in one last one.

‘A special doctor’ she had called her. ‘A family friend’.

He didn’t want to see a doctor. What was wrong with his lights?

Still, Yamaguchi wanted his mother to be happy, so he did what he was told.

* * *

 

“Yamaguchi-kun” she had suddenly said to him one day.

The young boy looked up from his position on the floor surrounded by paper and coloured pencils. There was a yellow one in his hand.

His mother crouched down to his level.

“You like your… lights, correct?”

Yamaguchi nodded vigorously.

“But you have to understand, some other kids might not.”

Yamaguchi tilted his head in confusion.

Why won’t the other kids like his lights?

“So, you’ll have to keep it a secret.”

That was the part that Yamaguchi was confused at the most, but he nodded anyway.

“We’ll keep it a secret, okay? Just the two of us” she smiled and held out her pinky.

Yamaguchi liked the sound of that. He took her pinky in his.

Even though she was smiling, he could see the desperation swimming in her eyes. The resignation.

The fear.

* * *

 

Over time, Yamaguchi learned to control his lights. Stars, he called them. He found comfort in its lazy warm glow and refusal to stay still.

He could blink them on and off as he wished. Sometimes, when he was bored he would have them bob around his face, just silently entranced by their beauty.

He also learned that when they weren’t shining, they tucked themselves into a small star shaped birthmark on the inside of his left wrist. He played with them sometimes too, watching them dance around each other and swirl beautiful patterns.

Yamaguchi liked his gift, even if he couldn’t share it. But oh, how he wanted to.

Later in his life, when his shadow casted itself a slight breadth taller, he made a friend.

His name was Yuuto.

Yamaguchi trusted him, with all the child-like innocence a child his age would have.

“Yuuto, do you want to see something cool?” he had asked one day. Yamaguchi was so excited! He was sure his friend would love it.

“Ok!” Yuuto replied, sensing the excitement his friend radiated.

Yamaguchi beamed in reply, closed his eyes, and willed his stars to shine.

And they did.

Yuuto gazed in wonderment and surprise, staring at the lights. Mesmerised by the orbs floating around him.

Yamaguchi smiled. His mother was wrong; the other kids did like his lights.

Then the expression on his face changed. It morphed into an ugly, disgusted snarl that seemed out of place on the face of a child.  Yamaguchi knew something was wrong.

“YOU… YOU FREAK!”

Yuuto backed away from him with all the horror his little body can muster. Not only horror, but also fear.

Yamaguchi’s face fell.

“G-GET AWAY FROM ME!”

Yuuto ran, far far away.

With that, Tadashi was left behind and broken. The warm glow of lights around him lit up the hot tears streaming out of his bright eyes. The lights hung suspended in the air, bobbing slightly. Defeated.

And suddenly his stars didn’t seem so bright.

* * *

 

Yamaguchi didn’t play with his stars anymore.

He hated them. He despised them with all the heart his body could conjure.

He hated the way they were permanently embedded into his skin, a constant ringing reminder of what he was.

A freak.

He didn’t delight in his ‘gift’. He turned away from it. He would try everything just to be rid of them. Everything, if the dozens of shining blades in the bin were to speak.

And for the years to come, it was the same.

Same life,

Same loser,

Same monster.

Yamaguchi didn’t mind it too much; he was used to it by now.

Yamaguchi soon moved up from 4th grade to 5th. Not that there was much difference.

It was the same, really.

Except the bullies were now taller.

And a lot stronger, he noted, as he was pushed to the concrete of the road mercilessly.

“Why are you so puny?” one of the three taunted, his face twisted into a malicious grin.

“You’ve got to bulk up, so you get to carry all our bags!” Another said light-heartedly, throwing a heavy bag at him, hitting his face.

His face stung. Oh god, he could feel it coming.

‘I won’t cry, I won’t cry!’ Yamaguchi told himself. If he started crying now, it would get even worse.

Hot tears welled in his innocent eyes, bubbling over, threatening to spill over. Oops, too late.

“Seriously? You’re crying?” they teased.

“He cries about everything!”

“You crybaby!”

He’s heard it all before. But somehow, every time it’s uttered, he feels a different pain in his heart. It hurts differently each time, like using the same blunt, rusty knife to stab different parts of him.

‘Crybaby’ his chest,

‘Freak’ his stomach,

‘Loser’ his lungs.

Suddenly, a figure crosses the corner of his blurred vision, and he looks up.

The figure stops at the scene, which was pretty strange, Yamaguchi observed.

3 kids standing and a kid laying on the floor crying with 4 bags lying next to him.

The bullies turn around, “What’re you looking at?!” the leader shouts.

“Hey, isn’t he a sixth grader?” one whispers to the leader.

At this point, Yamaguchi should’ve taken this opportunity to run, but right now he was glued to the floor.

Paralysed.

“No, he’s just from class 3.”

The blond boy gave them a condescending – almost disdainful – look.

“Lame.”

With that he walked off. Indifferent.

“Hey, wait a second!”

The leader ran to the boy, who Yamaguchi noticed was quite tall, and grabbed the back of his bag, yanking him back a step.

The boy turned around, and it was now completely obvious he towered over the leader.

“What.” The boy grit out, leaning down into his face.

_‘Terrifying.’_

“Y-You’re lame, four eyes!” The leader backed away and nervously yelled.

The boy laughed.

“So cool.” Yamaguchi thought.

Yamaguchi had stuck with the boy since then.

Tsukishima Kei, his name was.

* * *

The lights within him brightened ever so slightly.

 


End file.
